


Reading "Still Breathing"

by yourlibrarian



Series: Reading Fan Vids [7]
Category: Angel: the Series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Commentary, Fanvids, Gen, Meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-04
Updated: 2016-05-04
Packaged: 2018-06-06 10:01:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6749170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yourlibrarian/pseuds/yourlibrarian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As proof positive that there's never a point where everything's been said, I want to point to charmax's vid Still Breathing, which I think puts a pretty good spin on Spike's story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reading "Still Breathing"

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Still Breathing](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/194800) by Charmax. 



> Originally posted June 5, 2007

As proof positive that there's never a point where everything's been said I want to point to charmax's new vid Still Breathing, which I think puts a pretty good spin on Spike's story.

For starters it's very attractive looking, nice and sharp. It opens with the beginning of the vid also being a new start for Spike. I like what she did with the bed intercuts. It reminds me of the comment Lindsey makes to Spike that it's not like he'll be sharing it with anyone anyway which, I think, would inevitably make him think of the last time he did. I like the way the "never going back there again" has various meanings -- about things he's done, about who he's been, about what he's had. I also like the various cuts of Spike riding away. He’s tried to escape Sunnydale numerous times, S2, S3, S6, but he always went back even if changed each time. Now, of course, he can’t. Sunnydale doesn’t exist anymore, and Spike as he was doesn’t either.

In the second stanza with “words” it seems so pertinent to Spike to me. Words have always been important to him, whether in the beginning as someone who struggled to work with them; whether as a person whose life and self underwent radical shifts as a result of things that were said to him (for good and bad); and as a character, whose words were often blunt instruments to those who needed them to find their own way. Technically words were important to the Buffyverse in general, given Joss' leanings as a writer, but I think a good argument could be made that of all the characters they were most important to Spike. 

Similarly, I was intrigued by the way that the violence that the song references gets explored through Spike’s involvement with Slayers. He wouldn’t be where he is now otherwise and yet those interactions and their aftermath are things that he doesn’t want to return to now. It’s all different -- as is what Spike would call “one good day.” 

Which brings us around again to the ending. I love the way the vid closes, with the ending to both Chosen and NFA intercut. To me it integrates Spike at last. All through the vid we've been seeing parallels to Spike pre-soul and Spike post-soul, often doing the same things but not for quite the same reasons and not as quite the same person either. For example in the first half of the vid we see him comforting Buffy, and that's intercut with Spike and Fred comforting one another at the end of Hellbound. He's trying to help, he's still not always successful, but he's doing it for his own reasons now and with a deeper understanding of what sacrifice is. At the same time, seeing the ending from the outside it’s rather painful to know what he may be facing yet again. However committed he may be, he has to be fearing it as well.


End file.
